Thousands of students discovered gambling and organizing gambling on a scale of 2,800 billion VND

The Investigation Security Agency of Bac Giang Provincial Police has just completed the investigation conclusion of the case of organizing gambling and gambling via Momo e-wallet on an exceptionally large scale.

Among the gamblers were many students from several universities such as Hanoi University of Science and Technology, FPT Hanoi, Hanoi National University, Hanoi University of Science and Technology... and industrial park workers.

New methods and tricks

Faced with the complicated situation of cybercrime, through professional work and understanding the situation, at the end of 2022, the Department of Cyber ​​Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention and Control, Bac Giang Provincial Police discovered that the websites "clmm.me" and "clmmz.me" used transaction codes to transfer money through Momo e-wallet accounts to organize and conduct gambling with transaction amounts up to thousands of billions of VND. New, sophisticated and professional methods and tricks.

While verifying, the police agency received a complaint against Luc Van Phong (born in 2001) and Ly Van Giang (born in 2000), both residing in Hoa Quang village, Tan Moc commune, Luc Ngan district, Bac Giang province, for gambling.

Working with the police, Phong and Giang honestly confessed to gambling on the websites "clmm.me" and "clmmz.me". Luc Van Phong submitted a surrender application and stated: From September 2021 to September 2022, he had repeatedly used a Momo account registered with his phone number to gamble, with transactions up to 5 times a day for a total of 13 million VND.

The investigation showed that these forms of gambling are all based on the last digits of the money transfer transaction code to calculate wins and losses according to specific regulations. Specifically, for each money transfer transaction via Momo e-wallet account, the sender and the recipient will both receive the same transaction code with random last digits from 0 to 9 sent by Online Mobile Services Joint Stock Company (Momo wallet). From there, the subjects researched, programmed, and managed the websites "clmm.me" and "clmmz.me", rented IP addresses, and servers located in the US to organize gambling.

Based on the initial verification results and the nature of the case, the Director of Bac Giang Provincial Police assigned the Provincial Police Investigation Security Department to continue the investigation. On December 29, 2022, the Bac Giang Provincial Police Investigation Security Department issued a decision to supplement the criminal case of "Organizing gambling" on the websites "clmm.me" and "clmmz.me".

Gambling transaction money 2,800 billion VND

The investigation determined: In January 2021, from playing the electronic game Game Ngoc Rong on social networks, Ngo Duc Ha (born in 1998), from Xuan Lan village, Huong Mai commune, Viet Yen district, Bac Giang province (residence: Apartment No. 3201, building S2-03, Vinhomes Smart City Urban Area, Tay Mo ward, Nam Tu Liem district, Hanoi) met and became friends with Tran Do Duc Nghia.

Through conversation, Ha knew that Nghia was a student and very good at information technology, so he asked Nghia to program a website to organize gambling based on the transaction code of the Momo e-wallet account. Nghia programmed the website according to the features and functions that Ha requested, then handed over the website account and password to Ha.

Subject Ngo Duc Ha

In June 2021, Ha started to put the website into operation. As the mastermind and leader, Ha sought to hire famous Youtuber channel owners to advertise the website, hired many people to work in the technical and customer care fields to manage, operate, and maintain the website's operations.

People who want to gamble will access the websites “clmm.me” and “clmmz.me”. The website has instructions on gambling forms such as Odd-Even, Odd-Even 2, Over-Under, Over-Under 2, Sum of 3 numbers, 1/3, Triple, Cross, Guess the number and the payout ratio of each specific form of play, the betting amount for each game in the game forms is from 20,000 VND to 3 million VND; there is no limit on the number of games or playing time.

Ngo Duc Ha and related subjects used about 7,000 different junk Momo e-wallet accounts to organize gambling. This activity attracted tens of thousands of people nationwide to participate, each day making 10,000 - 50,000 transactions, gambling amounts from 1 billion VND to 3 billion VND per day. From the time the websites "clmm.me" and "clmmz.me" were active until they were discovered, the total amount of gambling transactions was about 2,800 billion VND.

Up to this point, the Investigation Agency has clarified 6,036 spam accounts used by subjects for gambling and 71,154 e-wallet accounts participating in gambling. The amount of money illegally profited by the gambling organizers is 35 billion VND. The Investigation Agency has seized 10 billion VND and many assets such as cars, computers, and mobile phones related to the crime.

Initial prosecution of 33 subjects

Based on the investigation results and collected documents, the Security Investigation Agency has decided to prosecute 8 subjects for the crime of "Organizing gambling" including: Ngo Duc Ha; Vu Cong Toi (born in 2001) in Vinhomes Smart City Urban Area, Tay Mo Ward, Nam Tu Liem District, Hanoi; Tran Do Duc Nghia (born in 2004) in Khuong Trung Ward, Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi; Nguyen Manh Can (born in 1999) in Vinhomes Smart City Urban Area, Tay Mo Ward, Nam Tu Liem District, Hanoi; Vu Duc Toai (born in 1998) in Thai Duong Commune, Binh Giang District, Hai Duong Province; Duong Phuc Chien (born in 2000) in Yen Son Commune, Thanh Son District, Phu Tho Province; Ngo Thi Lien (born in 2003) and Ngo Thi Thu (born in 2003) both in Xuan Lan Village, Huong Mai Commune, Viet Yen District, Bac Giang Province.

8 subjects were prosecuted by Bac Giang Police for organizing gambling

Initially, the authorities prosecuted 25 subjects for the crime of "Gambling". Lieutenant Colonel Dinh Quang Hiep, Permanent Deputy Head of the Provincial Police Department's Investigation Security Agency, said: Among the "gamblers" participating in the game, there were many students from universities such as Hanoi University of Science and Technology, FPT Hanoi, Hanoi National University, Hanoi University of Science and Technology... and workers working in industrial parks in Bac Giang and Bac Ninh provinces.

The Security Investigation Agency is continuing to verify and clarify the subjects participating in gambling in the localities.

Many loopholes in phone SIM management

Through investigation of the case, Bac Giang Provincial Police discovered many loopholes in management related to a number of areas. That is, the management of phone SIM cards issued by network operators is not strict, there are still business activities, buying and selling junk SIM cards in large quantities; buying and selling SIM cards through groups on social networks...

Licensing and management of payment intermediary activities and e-wallet accounts are still limited, and there are no specific regulations to handle violations in the registration, management and use of e-wallet accounts.

Management of Youtube channels and detection and handling of bad and toxic information on social networks are still limited, leading to the situation where subjects take advantage of many Youtuber channels to advertise, introduce, and attract viewers to forms of gambling and fraud to appropriate property via social networks.

The registration and management of Momo micro-electronic accounts are still lacking and flawed, so bad guys have taken advantage of using mobile subscribers to register and open accounts, then through linking with domestic cards to activate the Momo e-wallet account without having to register, activate the phone subscription, or verify the information of the Momo wallet owner...

Bac Giang Provincial Police have reported and recommended that Online Mobile Services Joint Stock Company review and take measures to overcome loopholes in money transfer transactions and strengthen the management of Momo e-wallet accounts.

At the same time, it is recommended that authorities, organizations at all levels, and schools coordinate to promote propaganda and education among students, pupils, and workers studying and living in the province to understand the methods and tricks of cybercrime. It is recommended that people raise awareness and sense of law enforcement, not to assist, not to organize gambling, gamble on cyberspace, or commit other illegal acts.